Worthy of You

Two months later, at the Ninja Academy.

In the classroom, Nara Shikamaru propped his chin up listlessly. As he watched the steadily increasing number of students, he casually asked Akimichi Choji, who was sitting beside him and diligently eating potato chips, "Hey, Choji, after something like that happened, do you think Sasuke will still come to school?"

"Huh? What happened?" Choji froze for a moment, yet the motion of stuffing potato chips into his mouth did not pause in the slightest as he thought.

"Oh, right. Sasuke seemed to have missed the final exams last semester. Shikamaru, do you know what happened?"

"Forget it. It's nothing."

Speechless, Shikamaru rolled his eyes and stopped talking. He had never expected his companion to be this slow on the uptake. Although the village had treated that incident as deeply taboo, and many adults had never discussed it in front of children,

it had already been two months, yet Choji had not noticed anything strange at all...

If even Choji had not noticed anything, then that other guy was probably the same...

Without drawing attention, Shikamaru's dead-fish eyes shifted slightly toward the blond kid in the distance.

That kid was also resting his chin on his hand, looking impatient and displeased. Every so often, he glanced toward the door, as though waiting for someone to appear.

Second by second, more students arrived. The classroom was gradually nearly full, with only one seat left vacant.

The blond kid's expression also changed from impatience to slight anxiety.

Creak!

The front door of the classroom was pushed open, and everyone turned to look. Sasuke walked in with a calm expression, dressed in a blue stand-collar short-sleeved shirt and white shorts.

At the sight of Sasuke, the young ninjas who had been chattering away immediately fell silent.

Though they were all still young, and the adults had never discussed the Uchiha matter in front of them, their classmates were not fools.

Second Pillar had missed the final exams.

The Uchiha members of the Konoha Military Police Force, once seen everywhere on the streets, had vanished.

The adults' taboo-laden words, along with the disappearance of Uchiha students from other grades and classes.

Coupled with the fact that people in this world generally matured early, aside from a handful of particularly obtuse classmates, most of them had vaguely guessed what had happened to Second Pillar.

Sasuke paid no attention to the gazes filled with curiosity, concern, sympathy, pity, and all kinds of other emotions. Such looks were nothing unfamiliar to him.

Over the past two months, whenever he appeared in Konoha, all sorts of people had looked at him that way. Some meant well, while others did not.

Whether their intentions were good or ill, they would usually wait until he had gone far away before discussing him in private.

Some worried about hurting him a second time. Some simply felt deeply taboo about the matter. Others merely thought Sasuke was bad luck.

Sasuke had no interest in paying attention to them, nor did he care what they thought.

"Sasuke!!!"

A loud shout echoed throughout the classroom. Sasuke immediately felt a burning, irritated gaze that had been fixed on him ever since he entered. Unlike everyone else's looks, this one carried enthusiasm and competitiveness.

Without even turning around, Sasuke knew who it was. Before entering this classroom, he had imagined many possible scenes. This was one of them.

Turning his head, he saw a boy with short blond hair, azure eyes, and six whisker-like marks on his face.

Sure enough, worthy of you.

Uzumaki Naruto!

"Heh..."

Sasuke chuckled softly and ignored Naruto. After scanning the classroom, he carried his backpack and slowly prepared to find an empty seat.

"You bastard, you're ignoring me? What was that smile supposed to mean?"

Seeing Sasuke ignore him, Naruto became even more annoyed and shouted, "You ran away at the last minute last semester. Were you afraid I'd beat you flat? If that's the case..."

Thud!

Before he could finish, Naruto received a hard knock on the head from Haruno Sakura, who shouted angrily:

"Naruto, you idiot, shut up!"

Naruto wanted to ask something, but in the end, under Sakura's gaze that seemed ready to burn and devour him, he shut his mouth miserably.

Only after Naruto quieted down did Sakura finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Sasuke..."

From far away, Sakura looked at Sasuke worriedly. She realized that Sasuke seemed to have changed. The Sasuke from before had been proud, cool, and handsome.

Now, Sasuke had only calmness. And her feminine intuition told her that beneath that calmness seemed to lie a loneliness utterly out of place with everyone else.

Having inexplicably sensed this, Sakura bit her lip, unable to stop herself from feeling a little heartache.

After placing his books on the desk, Sasuke closed his eyes to rest, as though everything outside had nothing to do with him.

Being extremely sensitive to gazes, he had sensed not only the emotions in Sakura's eyes, but also those in Naruto's.

There was no need to mention Sakura. She had been infatuated with the original owner's looks and held affection for him. After this incident, she seemed to have developed a girl's sympathy and a female's instinctive maternal urge to protect.

As for Naruto?

His behavior looked thoughtless and impulsive, and his personality was carefree, but his emotions were extremely sensitive. Perhaps his simple mind could not figure out exactly what had happened to the original owner, yet he had instinctively sensed something.

His earlier provocation and his seemingly heartless demeanor were merely Naruto's unique way of comforting someone—or rather, diverting their attention—just like the pranks he pulled to draw the villagers' attention.

These little brats acting all grown-up, heh...

Creak.

The classroom door opened again, and Iruka entered carrying books and lesson plans. He swept his gaze across the classroom, lingering noticeably longer on Sasuke, but he said nothing. He merely withdrew his gaze without drawing attention.

Naturally, he knew about the Uchiha clan's overnight destruction. Though he worried about this child and wanted to do something, he knew now was not the time. Otherwise, it would only backfire.

"Ahem..."

Walking to the lectern, Iruka cleared his throat and announced loudly, "Welcome, students. You will spend a new semester here. Now, let's begin roll call..."

Academy life, huh?

It seemed pretty good?

Watching Iruka speak passionately at the lectern, Sasuke silently thought to himself.

Although he now possessed three cultivation manuals, some of their contents were far too advanced for the knowledge he currently possessed, making them difficult to understand.

It was like those things were advanced mathematics, while the original owner's mathematics had only just reached middle school level.

There was still much he could learn at school.

Once he understood the basics, the difficult problems troubling him would naturally be resolved.